Zionist.com

New Israeli-made political news site

Ryan — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 12:37:01 +0000

I want to inform the Zionist.com community of a new Israeli-created political news website that I think will interest many of you news and politics junkies.

Skewz is similar to other “social” news sites in that you have to register as a member of the site before submitting the stories and links that make up the site’s content. It then departs from the norm by offering a sliding scale you can use to filter what stories and links you are shown based on political slant, ranging from radically left-wing to far right-wing.

I, for one, find this very useful, as I typically depend on trusted blogs and other personal commentary sites to bring me up to speed on political issues I may run across but have little understanding of.

For example, I have been in Israel my entire adult life, so have little understanding of the health care debate that is such a major fixture of the US presidential campaign. When something happens or is said regarding this issue, I usually scan the mainstream media reports about it, and then head to the blogs and commentary sites to learn the background info.

Now, when I do this, I prefer to be schooled by authors who share my conservative outlook (though I don’t shy away from peeking at what the other side it saying also). But with most social news sites that aggregate blogs and commentary websites, I receive a deluge of results from left-leaning writers.

Skewz allows me to eliminate that clutter and be served results that are more in line with how I would view the topic, if I was more knowledgeable about American health care.

The user base at Skewz is not very big yet, so the content selection is still a bit slim. But with the presidential election just around the corner, I think the site will grow quickly and will become a great resource for folks like me. Check it out: www.skewz.com

US intelligence, Iran and the Israel factor

Ryan — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 17:41:45 +0000

Like many others, I was initially shocked when I read last week that US intelligence had determined with “moderate confidence” that Iran abandoned its quest for nuclear weapons in 2003. Hadn’t US intelligence determined just 11 months earlier with a far greater degree of confidence that Iran was determined, despite the potential consequences, to develop nuclear military power?

From the US Annual Threat Assessment delivered on January 11, 2007:

We assess that Tehran is determined to develop nuclear weapons–despite its international obligations and international pressure.

But then I began to process this development in the context of the rest of the news surrounding it.

Like his father and Bill Clinton before him, President George W. Bush is determined to carve out for himself a positive legacy before the end of his presidency. Mr. Bush can’t do that if his second terms ends with the entire Muslim world hating him. And while there is little hope of convincing the Muslim world to suddenly love America, let alone the Bush Administration, there is no hope whatsoever of that happening if Israel strikes Iran with tacit US approval.

Israeli leaders responded to the US intelligence report by stressing that Israeli intelligence did not concur with the conclusions, and that Israel would still strike Iran if it felt there was no other option.

But an Israel cabinet minister told Time magazine what everyone knows to be true: that the US report had effectively taken the option of a preemptive Israeli strike off the table, since Israel did not intend to attack Iran without the green light the Olmert government believes it needs from Washington.

In addition to that, I believe, as do others I have spoken to, that the findings of this report are part of the overall scheme to divide the Land of Israel.

Again, like his father and Bill Clinton before him, the creation of a Palestinian Arab state would be the jewel in the crown Bush hopes will be his legacy. Bush declared with messianic vigor in 2004 that he would be the one to bring peace to the Middle East, and he is determined to see that pledge through.

However, Mr. Bush only has one year left to get things done, and we are no further along in the “peace” process today than we were 10 years ago. How in the world could this situation possibly be brought to a head in just one year? Well, it certainly won’t if there are other major regional concerns, like a nuclear Iran. So the US took that concern off the table in order to focus maximum attention on ramming through the division of the Land of Israel.

If you ask me, Bush and Rice are not to be believed when they express frustration over the findings of the intelligence report. This is all part of the plan.

Stan has written a must-read analysis of this situation, explaining how the US intelligence report is only the latest piece of evidence that in the end, Israel will stand alone with no national friends or allies.

Defend Israel - join an anti-Annapolis summit rally!

Ryan — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 09:35:47 +0000

I received the following email this week from a man whose US-based ministry has long fought to defend Israel and its biblical right to this land. He and others like him are urgently calling for all Israel-loving Bible believers to make their way to Washington, DC and Annapolis, Maryland to confront the latest satanic attempt to divide this land and thwart God’s plans.

Jerusalem is in danger. The nation of Israel is in danger. Our families and communities are in danger. There is a battle raging, a revolution formulating and it is not focused on the Jews alone. What we see happening in Israel today with the people who refer to themselves as Palestinians is merely a war by proxy aimed at controlling God’s very throne, the place where He said His name would be known FOREVER, Jerusalem, more precisely Mount Moriah - the Temple Mount.

If Islam can dominate the land of Israel and push the Jews into the Mediterranean (which to this day is the stated goal of PLO charter) there will be no stabilizing force to hold back the pan-Arab takeover of the Asian and African Continents, there will be no bridle in the mouth of the descendants of Ishmael who God Himself foretold would be a wild ass among men. Make no mistake about it, Islam is a revolution on a global scale. The Imams are teaching that their pseudo-god provided his faithful followers with an abundant supply of oil to fund the spread of Islam throughout the Earth. The oil is running out with only another twenty years left to accomplish their deed. This, to the point of total domination, where the infidel or unbeliever is only allowed to survive as a slave and is heavily taxed. This can already be seen happening in most of the Islamic countries throughout the world today.

My point is this - Right now the framework is being set for an unprecedented take over of Israel’s biblical inheritance. If Islam takes control of the land now being proposed, not only will there not be peace in the Middle East, the stage will be set for insurrection throughout the world. There is a unique opportunity to make a stand to help protect Israel from Arab aggression while never leaving American soil. We can make a difference, together, at a time when Israel is having her arm twisted by an administration desperate to create a legacy for itself at the expense of the Jewish people.

We can lift our voices in opposition at the front of the White House and at the front gate of the Annapolis Naval Academy. Permits to assemble have been secured at both venues on the dates of the conference in Annapolis. We need voices. We need faithful believers who can come together and say to the mountain of political coercion facing Israel, be removed.

A coalition of Jewish and Christian organizations is working together to rally support for Israel and defend Jerusalem from Arab aggression. The dates for the rallies are November 25 at the White House and the 26th and 27th at Annapolis.

Sincerely,
Ed Warmoth
Builders of Zion Executive Director
ed@buildersofzion.org
www.buildersofzion.org
US Phone: 407-971-7631

These guys clearly understand that this battle is a spiritual one at its root, and that action is needed. Many Christians, even ones who firmly support and love Israel, believe that since everything is ultimately in God’s hands anyway, there is no need for us to take action. This position is wrong. If anything, the Bible teaches us that God desires to accomplish His will through us. He has honored us by inviting us to partner with Him, and we should not miss that opportunity.

If you are able, make every effort to be one of those physically and publicly standing for Israel when later this month the nations of the world again come against her to try and wrest control of the most important and strategic parts of this land.

Sign the Declaration of Solidarity with Israel

Ryan — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 12:37:28 +0000

I was recently made aware of an online petition currently making the rounds that I would encourage everyone who opposes the surrender of even one inch of the biblical Land of Israel to the Muslim Arab world to sign.

The petition comes in two forms: a motion of no-confidence in the Israeli government for Israeli citizens to sign, and a Declaration of Solidarity for non-Israelis to sign.

Both, say the organizers of the petition, will act to give courage to Israeli lawmakers to stand up to their out-of-control government that seems bent on capitulating to the enemies of the Jewish state.

The petition can be found here: www.strongisrael.org

While this petition alone is unlikely to sway Olmert, who insists he is under no obligation to seek even the Knesset’s approval in negotiating away Israel’s birthright, it never hurts to let Israelis know just how many people out there stand firmly with their right to possess all of their God-given heritage.

Also, the website linked above has a wealth of information regarding the true intentions of the “moderate” Palestinian forces Olmert will find himself across the table from in Annapolis next month.

Right, wrong and the Israeli-Arab peace process

Ryan — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 12:20:02 +0000

Former Israeli Knesset Member and Minister of Justice Tommy Lapid argued persuasively, but erroneously in a recent Jerusalem Post op-ed that both Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu are right in their contrasting approaches to the peace process.

Olmert knows that he must at least try to engage the Arabs in dialogue, and wean his nation off the belief that all the dreams, hopes and prayers of generations of Jews can be fulfilled in the midst of the present conflict, wrote Lapid.

But that doesn’t mean Netanyahu is wrong to warn of the dangers inherent in Olmert’s course of action. If the weak and seemingly incapable regime of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, with whom Olmert is negotiating the surrender of the West Bank, is again defeated by Hamas as it was in Gaza, “not only Tel Aviv…will share the fate of Sderot, but so will Ben-Gurion Airport, cutting off Israel’s ties with the world,” Lapid conceded.

Israel, Lapid concluded, simply has no choice but to soldier on along this path of disparate political approaches, as “there is no practical solution to the conflict in sight. …Some situations have no solutions. And for the time being, life goes on.”

That conclusion sounds reasonable, if not bleak, on the surface, but falls apart if we dig a little deeper.

Lapid fails to entertain the option of one side in this equation - either the right led by Netanyahu, or the left led by Olmert - waking up to reality and backing the other’s position. While it is unlikely to happen, examining the consequences of such an occurrence shows precisely why both sides are not right.

If, as Lapid accepts, Netanyahu is correct in his current assertion that true and lasting peace cannot be made with the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority regardless of how much Israel gives, then for Netanyahu and the bulk of his followers to adopt Olmert’s position would lead to catastrophe.

However, for Olmert and the left to adopt Netanyahu’s position would signal a seismic shift in an increasingly pointless diplomatic process that has produced plenty of photo opportunities and little peace since its inception more than a decade ago.

Lapid suggests that the right’s alternative to Olmert actively pursuing doomed land-for-peace negotiations with the Palestinians is to create a diplomatic vacuum, to more or less ignore the issue all together. Lapid is right that such a scenario would invite “pressures that we would find it impossible to withstand.”

But Lapid is wrong in thinking that the right’s substitute for offering strategic concessions to an intractable foe is diplomatic idleness. Netanyahu has long insisted that it is his desire to find a truly workable solution to the conflict, and one of the right’s more active members in this arena, National Union Party chief Rabbi Benny Elon, just launched a thoroughly detailed alternative peace plan of his own.

The ideas being put forth by the right might not result in bilateral peace, but for the nation at large to embrace them would signal to the world that Jewish history and Israeli security are no longer being offered as sacrifices on the alter of a false peace. And that would restore national pride, dignity and a willingness to fight for Israel’s rights to levels that have not been seen since the early years of the Jewish state’s rebirth.

Lapid and others on the left see the right’s alternatives as little more than hot air because Israelis have been trained over the past decade by an idealistic peace movement to view such proposals as wildly unrealistic. How many times over the past three years alone have we heard Olmert and Ariel Sharon before him lament that holding on to the full Zionist dream has become an unfeasible and even irrational notion?

The truth is that the concept of land-for-peace has become unrealistic, just as the insistence that this is a purely political and nationalistic struggle that has nothing to do with religion has become untenable. The lesson Israelis should have learned over the past decade as a result of continued Palestinian intransigence and Hamas gains is that concessions and goodwill are clearly not going to lead to peace, and offering them will only embolden an enemy that has no intention of relinquishing its quest to ultimately regain all that was once under Islam’s dominion.

Lapid is right in seeing no practical solution to the conflict. He is wrong in thinking that Israel has no choice but to go along with this moribund process anyway, to the detriment of its own cause and the well being of its citizens.

Will America buy the latest Palestinian lies?

Ryan — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 09:49:42 +0000

Israel’s wayward leadership is trying to cleverly minimize the damage done to their nation at the upcoming US-hosted peace summit in Annapolis by insisting that the faltering Middle East peace process remain tied to the Washington-backed Road Map peace plan.

The reason for hoisting the Road Map as the standard for peacemaking is that the plan is a performance-based one that if accurately followed would require the Palestinians to finally provide Israel with the peace, security and rest from aggression it has so long sought. Failure on the Palestinians’ part to do so is supposed to negate Israel’s obligation to turn over any additional territory.

So what do the Palestinians do? They naturally launch a campaign to convince the Bush Administration and other world leaders that they have already fulfilled all their obligations under the first phase of the Road Map, and are now awaiting Israel’s reciprocation. It is a laughable claim, but unfortunately for Israel it is probably enough to outflank Jerusalem’s diplomatic position since Washington and the world have never been much for fact-checking when it comes to Palestinian assertions, regardless of how wild they may be. The very fact that we are talking about a people group known as the “Palestinians” at all is evidence of that.

So what does Phase One of the US-authored Road Map demand of the Palestinians?

To put it simply, the Road Map demands that the Palestinian leadership explicitly recognize Israel’s right to exist in this region, renounce and combat the use of terrorist violence against Israelis, and put an end to incitement against Israel and the Jews in the Palestinian media and school system.

I doubt it is necessary to expound upon how these commitments have been anything but fulfilled by the Palestinian Authority. Suffice it to say that Palestinian leaders (when speaking in Arabic) continue to employ language that provides hope of one day eradicating Jewish sovereignty, successful and attempted attacks on Israelis continue unabated, and Palestinian children are still being taught by their teachers and favorite television characters to loathe the Jews and seek “martyrdom” while fighting them.

Tens minutes on the Internet making elementary use of Google is sufficient to punch numerous holes in the latest Palestinian diplomatic position. The question is whether Washington will champion truth and justice, or if it will put perceived American interests in the Middle East ahead of Israeli lives and again sell the Jewish state down the river.

Jerusalem the stumbling block

Ryan — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:44:40 +0000

The international community will bring the Israelis and Arabs together in Annapolis, Maryland next month to again try to solve the Middle East conflict according to its own wisdom and humanist agenda. It will fail, as it has every other time, and it looks like Jerusalem will once again be the stumbling block that prevents any real progress down the false path to peace.

Israel’s deputy prime minister is openly admitting that the division of Jerusalem will be on the table at the upcoming summit. Even Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, once the mayor of what he insisted would always be the “eternal, undivided capital” of the Jewish people, seems to be backing that position.

But rather than jump on the offer and then work to get more later, the Palestinians are hardening their positions before negotiations have even began, making demands that would necessitate uprooting well over 100,000 Jews from densely populated neighborhoods - a concession the Palestinians know full well Olmert is simply in no position to make.

Why would they do this? Why would the Palestinians make demands they know it is impossible for Olmert to meet, instead of taking everything he is offering now and then demanding more later?

The Palestinians and the backers of their cause claim that offers that do not meet 100% of their demands cannot be accepted because doing so would prevent them from ever reaching their full goals. I would like to note that in 1993, Yasser Arafat and his PLO ostensibly renounced the use of terrorist violence against Israel and recognized the right of the Jewish state to exist. That, however, clearly did not stop Arafat and his Palestinians from employing terrorist violence against Israel and seeking Jewish state’s ultimate demographic demise through a “Palestinian right of return.”

So why now would accepting most of eastern Jerusalem prevent the Palestinians from continuing their “struggle” to ultimately wrest control of all Jerusalem from the Jews? Arafat also seemed to be stricken by this lack of logic when in 2000 he turned down Ehud Barak’s offer of about 95 percent of Judea and Samaria, including the eastern half of Jerusalem. This was the same Arafat who knew in 1993 that he could sign deals with Israel and then not live up to his side of the bargain, while retaining the support of the world for future concessions.

Something or someone muddled Arafat’s thinking in 2000, just as Abbas’ is being muddled now. To me, it is clear that the Lord is hardening the hearts of Israel’s enemies to prevent the world and Israel’s own delusional leaders from going too far down this path of destruction.

That should come as no surprise to those who read and believe the Bible. Zechariah 12 states that in these days Jerusalem will be made a stumbling block, an immovable stone to all the nations that try to move it, a hindrance to their plans.

Expect the Annapolis summit to fail (even if the leaders make some kind of “feel good” statement at its closing), and expect Jerusalem to be the reason.

Other good takes on the planned division of Jerusalem:

Jameel over at the Muqata notes that in the Bible, the mother who was willing to divide the baby she claimed as hers was revealed by Solomon to not be the true mother.

The Elder of Zion points to an Arab report that the Palestinians are willing to put Jerusalem under Jordanian sovereignty - kind of a “if we can’t have it, then neither can the Jews” move. However, if the Palestinians are so ready to let the Jordanians come in, is Jerusalem really as important to them as they claim?

Pray for the Christians of Gaza

Ryan — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 09:57:13 +0000

A young and by all account passionate Christian man was stabbed to death in the Gaza Strip this past weekend in an incident that should highlight precisely the kind of “free” and “tolerant” society the Bush Administration and the international community are trying to create by pushing for the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state.

The young man in question, 31-year-old Rami Ayyad, was the director of Gaza’s only major Christian bookstore, and had been repeatedly threatened by local Muslim elements for his sharing of the Gospel. It would seem he was not intimidated by those threats, and continued to share the love and message of the Lord. He paid for his faith and faithfulness with his life. Ayyad was married with two small children and a third on the way.

Regurgitating the propaganda of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, the international media maintains that relations between Christians and Muslims in Gaza are generally good. The reality is that attacks and acts of intimidation have been increasing for years, and that Christians there are merely tolerated, and that only when they submit to dhimmi status. The most at risk are those who, like Ayyad, share the Gospel with their Muslim neighbors, and those who accept that message and open their hearts to the Lord (they are locally referred to as MBBs - Muslim Background Believers, because they live in fear of shedding the title “Muslim”).

It is sickening to me that the world is always at the ready to jump on Israel over any and every alleged infringement of freedom of religion, but completely ignores the plight of Palestinian Christians persecuted by their Muslim overlords. What frustrates me even more are those American Christian organizations and churches that actively bolster the claim that it is Israel that oppresses these Christians.

Israel did not kill Ayyad. Israel did not bomb Ayyad’s bookstore or the Gaza Bible Society that runs it. Israel does not send threatening letters to Arab Christians who dare to share the love of Jesus with their Muslim neighbors. It is time to stop misappropriating blame and time to start supporting brave souls like Ayyad who put everything on the line, literally, to bring the truth where it is most dangerous to do so.

Abbas supports terrorism

Ryan — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 11:54:52 +0000

Those who read this blog are fully aware that the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas is a supporter and facilitator of Muslim terrorism, but it never hurts to remind everyone else of that fact and introduce new evidence as to why this man and his government should not be sitting across the negotiating table from our own leaders.

Last week, a prominent female Palestinian figure and lawmaker issued a very public “thank you” to Abbas after his government resumed direct financial aid to terrorists jailed or wounded by Israeli security forces and to the families of terrorists who died while attacking Jews.

Did you get that? Abbas is handing out money to terrorists and their families who are adversely affected by engaging in terrorist violence against Israeli Jews. How exactly is that discouraging terrorism? How does that make Abbas a true peace partner?

Now, this kind of behavior from the Palestinian leadership is pretty much par for the course. What is maddening is to listen to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert insist that Abbas is a man of peace and to US President George W. Bush claim that the Palestinian leader is combatting anti-Israel terrorism.

Could these guys have their heads any deeper in the sand?

Didn’t the Bush Administration make a big deal just a few years ago about Saddam Hussein distributing financial compensation to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers? How are Abbas’ actions any different?

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US, Bush insisted that leaders and nations around the globe are either with us or with the terrorists. What he forgot to mention was that the apparent exception to that rule are the Palestinians, who continue to be permitted to openly keep one foot in the terrorists’ camp and the other in the White House.

Worship at the Temple Mount

Ryan — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 14:24:08 +0000

I joined the International Christian Zionist Center (ICZC) Feast of Tabernacles celebration again today as the group visited and held a worship service on the ancient steps of the Temple Mount. It was a beautiful and inspiring experience that most everyone there agreed had spiritually opened the gates for increased Christian efforts to bring about the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem.

Part of those efforts will be - God willing - the annual presence of God-fearing, Israel-loving Christians proclaiming the Lord’s truth regarding Israel and the coming of her king and messiah from this very location. The spot where the service was held will be known to any who have visited Israel. It is on the ancient unearthed steps that extend from the southern end of the Temple Mount, just under the Al Aqsa Mosque - the site Muslims claim as Islam’s third holiest.

The ICZC event experienced tremendous growth this year that can only be attributed to the Lord’s blessing and favor. If that percentage of growth continues next year, these ancient steps will be the only other place in Jerusalem other than the Jerusalem Convention Center (which the Christian Embassy already uses) that can accommodate such a gathering. Pray the Lord will give the ICZC favor to secure the ancient Temple Mount steps for every evening of next year’s feast.

Needless to say, the Muslims inside Al Aqsa were not too happy about 500 Christians proclaiming God’s Word, praying for Israel’s full restoration, and worshiping the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just outside their windows. Throughout the service Muslims inside the mosque could be seen watching us from the windows, and even taking pictures of the group. Pray that the spirit of Islam will quickly be broken over this holy hill, and that as many as possible of those Muslims whose hearts and minds are held captive by Allah will be freed.

It really seems that we are nearing something big. Events like this reinforce the feeling that we are very rapidly nearing the end of all things prophesied in His Word. And we will be even closer next year when thousands of Christians who love His Name and His Word gather nightly at the steps of His ancient and future temple to worship and do warfare against the spirit of Islam.